A Cure for What Ailes Ya
NYT, Thursday:
After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation, had encouraged her to lie two years earlier to federal investigators who were vetting Bernard B. Kerik for the job of homeland security secretary…
Now, court documents filed in a lawsuit make clear whom Ms. Regan was accusing of urging her to lie: Roger E. Ailes, the powerful chairman of Fox News and a longtime friend of Mr. Giuliani.
And what was the purported lie? Denying that “Ms. Regan had once been involved in an affair with Mr. Kerik.”
So, other than needing a strong dose of mind bleach, what’s the problem here?
Oh, right: federal investigators. Which leads to…
Barry Ritholtz, today:
Someone I spoke with claimed that Ailes was scheduled to speak at their event in March, but canceled. It appears that Roger’s people, ostensibly using a clause in his contract, said he “cannot appear for legal reasons.”
I asked “What, precisely, does that mean?”
The response: “Roger Ailes will be indicted — probably this week, maybe even Monday.”
If, like us, you don’t have a fucking clue who Barry Ritholtz is, here’s a glimpse: “Mr. Ritholtz is a regular guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox, CNN, ABC, CBS, PBS, MSNBC, and C/SPAN… In his day job, Mr. Ritholtz is CEO and Director of Equity Research at Fusion IQ, an online quantitative research firm.”
So, dude gets around. And while the quality of his sourcing is up for grabs, we can’t but help be warmed at the thought that, of all things, Roger Ailes may be nailed for covering up an affair.
Al Capone’s ghost hasn’t been this ashamed since Gerry Rivers made a big deal out of his vault.
Dude would look huge in prison orange, but it’s the price you pay.
Call me cynical, but I’d give an Ailes indictment a probability of about. 01%.
Hope I’m wrong.
The only thing I find shocking here is that they didn’t engineer this coming to light much earlier, when Shrub could have just given Ailes a pardon. Guess they really did think the Republican majority would last forever…
This Ailes thing is nice and all, but where is the Oscars open thread? Cate Blanchett is wearing a dress that looks like a herpes outbreak and Sharon Stone decided to come dressed as Malificent from Sleeping Beauty AND I HAVE NO PLACE TO POST IT!!!!!!
‘…he “cannot appear for legal reasons.”’
C’mon. The truth is someone spilled water on him.
Wish I could have been there. “What a world! What a world….”
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